Angélique Kidjo, (born July 14, 1960, Ouidah, Dahomey [now Benin]), Beninese popular singer known for her collaborations with internationally prominent popular musicians and for her innovative blending of diverse musical styles.
At age six Kidjo began performing in her mother’s theatre troupe, and, as a teenager, she sang with her brothers in their rock–rhythm-and-blues band. By age 20 she was a professional singer. She recorded her first album, Pretty, in 1988.
She featured the American jazz musician Branford Marsalis and the African artists Manu Dibango and Ray Lema. With songs addressing issues of global concern—such as homelessness, the environment, freedom, and integration—Logozo was an international success. Kidjo increased her international appeal through her later releases, including Fifa (1995), in which she and more than 100 other musicians performed songs in English, Fon (her native language), Yoruba, and French.
The world-famous song “Pata Pata”, a South African dance hit from 1967, is being re-released with new lyrics to spread information about coronavirus to vulnerable communities.
Her love for humanity and the lost of friend to the Covid-19 virus – Manu Dibango. He is remembered as a legend who put African music on the world map and inspired many artists including the likes of Benin’s grammy award winner Angelique Kidjo, she described Dibango as the original giant of African music.
“Pata Pata” meaning “touch touch” in the Xhosa language, was written by Grammy-winning singer Miriam Makeba who named it after a dance move popular in Johannesburg at the time.
The new version sung by Beninese artist Angelique Kidjo includes lyrics such as, “We need to keep our hands cleanso ‘no-Pata Pata’… Don’t touch your face, keep distance pleaseand ‘no-Pata Pata’”.
It will be played on more than 15 radio stations across African countries on Thursday, said the U.N. Children’s Agency (UNICEF), which organized the release.
“It sounds so simple and yet it’s still really difficult to get information out to people in the most remote areas or to people who aren’t online,” said UNICEF spokesman James Elder.
“Radio does the trick every time,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The song is also meant to spread joy in hard times, he said. It has been called “the world’s most defiantly joyful song” because it represented revelry under apartheid South Africa.
Nicknamed “Mama Africa”, Makeba helped popularize music from the continent worldwide.
She was a friend and mentor to Kidjo, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and one of the biggest African celebrities of the last decade.
African music suffered a blow earlier last month when Cameroonian jazz icon Manu Dibango died of coronavirus.
“Manu inspired me. Miriam inspired me. And ‘Pata Pata’ gave me hope,” Kidjo said in a statement.
“‘Pata Pata’ has always been there for people at a time of struggle. I hope from our confined spaces we can dance once more.”
